My Concerns About Activism

Recent events have proven to me that merely reading a textbook such as John Carl’s is hardly the way to understand the objectives and setbacks of today’s generation. Carl’s functionalism theory indicates that society is a system of connected parts working together to keep society intact. However, he also offers some views on conflict, namely that modern sociology focuses on social classes and their drastic differences in wealth, power, and prestige. It is this conflict theory which enabled me to come to terms with the people of my generation and older who are now involved in the nationwide movement called Occupy Wall Street. From reading media reports and watching events on television, I am finding out that this movement, peaceful in general, is frustrated at the income disparity and drab future prospects of the vast majority of Americans. What is frustrating for me, who has never been a “joiner” or an advocate, is that I am personally torn between merely watching and approving of this movement or somehow joining those in my hometown or nearby. What is clear is that

“The important thing to remember is civil disobedience” (Popper, Baum and Susman, p. A14).

Civil disobedience is nothing new in American history, of course, from the original Tea Party in Boston Harbor to protests against the Vietnam War, Freedom Marches in the South to protest segregation to conservationist protest about illegal logging in the Pacific Northwest.

My concern about joining my hometown protestors is based, in part, on fear. The facts seem to indicate that the same people who applauded Herman Cain and other Republican presidential candidates when their opposition to the Occupy Wall Street movement resulted in their telling protestors to get a job. A New Jersey newspaper’s op-ed piece shows the contempt some people have for the protests: “But to the rest of us, self-indulgent civil disobedience becomes tiresome. It also becomes revelatory in that the demonstrators are inevitably unmasked for what they are. They want something for nothing. They want a free pass in life. They think the world owes them a living, and they want to collect. They hate our government and its institutions” (“Your views” A20).

My concern, besides the fear of police actions, is frankly that I am not totally familiar with the concept of the large banks and Wall Street corporations. Historically, there has been a “Wall Street” since the founding of America and banks have been around even longer, although not in the gigantic size of today. One aspect of the protests is the notion of “too big to fail” and thus the protective armor various laws have to insulate the banking industry in today’s society. However, this is one principle espoused by the Occupy Wall Street people against the banking industry that hits home: ‘They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.-.They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce” “Welch, 4).

Welch’s article goes on to explain how many of these protestors are concerned- as I am- about being so heavily in debt because of student loans which, through the interest charged, help banks’ bottom line: The student loan complaint is worth a closer look because it has become a far more visible area of concern for the Occupy protests which are spreading to dozens of other cities coast to coast. “In aTumblr page called ‘We Are the 99 Percent’…from demonstrators who have cleverly cast themselves as Main Street victims of a rampaging Wall Street, many posters listed as their chief grievance the fact that they are obliged to pay back loans they took out for college” (Welch, 4).

The more I read and watch on TV, the more I have come to understand Carl’s comments in his first chapter that modern sociology focuses on social classes and their drastic differences in wealth, power, and prestige. However, while Carl and his fellow sociologists may look dispassionately at the events of the Occupy Wall Street movement, they are mere spectators and commentators. Margaret Mead did not become Samoan. Durkheim did not condone suicide. Karl Marx would have hated Stalin. Weber’s Protestant ethic would not allow Nazi death camps. So, we who see oppression in the guise of banking laws and bailouts and million dollar bonuses for people who do little except push some computer software around, are not dispassionate sociologists. We demand change that makes us inclusive of society not on the fringes of it. Occupy Wall Street will not be a sociological “event” that will soon disappear from the headlines, but an upwardly mopbile movement that requires people like me can no longer stand aside but will have to participate in some way to assure a life free from frustration and despair that could become America if the current economic conditions do not change.

References:

Popper, Nathaniel, Baum, Geraldine and Susman, Tina:

“Where does the Occupy Movement Go Now?”

Los Angeles Times, Nov. 16, 2011

Walsh, Raymond J.: “Your Views: Bergen (NJ) Record, Nov. 15,

2011.

Welch, Matt: “Bailouts for Me, but not for Thee”

Reason 43. 7 (Dec 2011


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